In credit with British Gas but they want to increase DD from £170 to £360!

[Poppyliveshere]

Electricity only, moved from People’s energy to British Gas. 4 bed bungalow with oil CH and oil HW. Not a huge difference in usage summer to winter. We are in credit (only by £30) but still clearly keep up at £170 per month, and submit readings every month. They can’t explain why the increase, and when they calculated again over the phone offered £214 per month. I’ve opted for a variable direct debit so just pay for what we use, but then we get charged 5% more, for not committing to a fixed direct debit. This all seems so random. Where did the £359 suddenly come from? Thinking of looking at Octopus as others have mentioned. And no, can’t have a smart meter as rural and mobile signal not reliable. Argh, why are all these companies so dishonest?

British Gas wanted £450 pm from me despite being in credit from prior dd of 180 pm - also transferred over from peoples energy. When I spoke to them they agreed this was too much and offered £200 pm but then their system wouldn’t allow them to reduce it that much! I had to do what you have done and go on the variable dd - I can’t afford to give them a bloody interest free loan!
I tried to move to octopus but I don’t think they are taking on customers - at least not easily online.
it’s all such a horrible mess.

Well being in credit means you are paying more than your past bills were but they clearly expect your future bills to be higher.

If you don’t, you will likely have a big catch up to pay at a later point.

Switch if you can. Variable DD shouldn't cost you more and Octopus gets good reviews.
The cheek of some of these companies thinking it's better for them to hold your overpayments,after the profits they are posting.
If you think you may have a jump in winter that you will be hit hard by start a jar at home and put money in to offset that way.
Cant see it if you use oil though you'll be used to extra fuel costs in winter.

I think to be honest that with the expected price rise of about 40% in October, £214 isn't that high so unless you can't afford to have a modest amount of credit in your energy account is probably just agree to that to save the hassle.

Well, your only £30 in credit, so with the price rise you'll be short paying & come October really under paying. £214 seems a reasonable compromise, you're nuts to pay 5% more for variable unless you're barely making it through the month. Even then you've got no cushioning against the price increases.

I appreciate yours won't increase as much as others, but it'll still increase.

😲
What are you using on your electricity to cost £170 a month?! If you're on oil for heating & HW, surely it's just a bit of lighting & cooking?

We're in a 3 bed bungalow, with oil CH & HW and our electricity DD is £58/mth - now obviously I know that's going to increase but you already seem to be paying a huge amount compared to us even before the price rises are factored in - is your immersion heater on?!

2 chest freezers, 3 huge teenage boys, on pcs and laptops, washing machine, septic tank also had 24/7 air pump, electric oven. Immersion has fused switched off intentionally! Think the whole thing might have been skewed by my brother staying for a week with his electric car, but we don’t have an electric car so no overnight tariff. Dunno, but we don’t use it to heat and rarely use tumble drier, just occasionally for towels, and it is a heat pump drier.

We are able to pay the increase, it’s just that I’d rather keep in in my account than theirs!

British Gas were so hopeless that they couldn’t even tell me if I’d ever had the 5%, even on the fixed DD. They said that if they set up the DD, which they did as moved across from Peoples Energy, then I’d never have had that anyway! Seriously planning on phoning Octopus on Monday

Im with Octopus and despite being £180 in credit they have "suggested" I increase my DD from £85 to £145. When I tried to reset online I couldn't drop new payment below £132.